--- title: Barack Obama Breaks Silence to Address Young Chicago Leaders description: Barack Obama broke his post-White House silence to talk with students at the University of Chicago, encouraging public engagement canonical: https://time.com/4752768/barack-obama-speech-university-of-chicago-young-leaders/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-04-24T17:38:37.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-08T08:47:11.373Z article:section: Politics og:title: Barack Obama to Young Leaders: It's Time to 'Take Up the Baton' og:description: Obama broke his post-White House silence to talk with students at the University of Chicago og:url: https://time.com/4752768/barack-obama-speech-university-of-chicago-young-leaders/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt02b7cfd011b25555/6988ca60656a3fe42ebcfb0b/gettyimages-672311788.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Former President Obama Speaks On Civic Engagement At The University Of Chicago og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Barack Obama to Young Leaders: It's Time to 'Take Up the Baton' twitter:description: Obama broke his post-White House silence to talk with students at the University of Chicago twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt02b7cfd011b25555/6988ca60656a3fe42ebcfb0b/gettyimages-672311788.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Barack Obama to Young Leaders: It's Time to 'Take Up the Baton' > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=b635667e-2d1c-432d-9a4f-34667ed96340&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Barack Obama To Young Leaders: It's Time To 'Take Up The Baton" [Watch (HLS stream): Barack Obama To Young Leaders: It's Time To 'Take Up The Baton"](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/6DZuxHKb.m3u8) (1:29)  _Published 2017-04-24. Former President Barack Obama said Monday that while there are lots of issues on his radar, the most important thing he believes he can do in his next job is help the next generation of leaders._ by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Apr 24, 2017 5:38 PM UTC by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Apr 24, 2017 5:38 PM UTC Former [President Barack Obama](http://time.com/tag/barack-obama/) said Monday that while there are lots of issues on his radar, the most important thing he believes he can do in his next job is help the next generation of leaders. “The single most important thing I can do is help in any way I can prepare the next generation of leadership to take up the baton,” Obama said. After spending weeks out of the spotlight, Obama kick-started his new role as a leadership coach by [hosting a discussion with students](http://time.com/4752253/barack-obama-speech-watch-online/) from across the Chicago area on civic engagement and leadership at the University of Chicago. Though the event was the former president’s first public appearance since leaving the White House, Obama avoided issues-of-the day, from the future of his signature health care law to the general work of his successor, to focus on talking about the issues he feels are critical to moving the country forward. “So, what’s been going on while I’ve been gone?” Obama jokingly asked as he took the stage. Gerrymandering, the divided media, and voter apathy were high on the president’s list of things to tackle. He’d drawn attention to those issues while in office, particularly during a speech he gave before the Illinois General Assembly [last February](http://time.com/4215851/barack-obama-springfield/). “What can we do all of us together to try to make our politics better?” he asked at the time. He appeared to return to that question at Monday’s event, though the audience was notably different. In 2017, Obama has swapped elected officials for the young people he believes will take the lead in the future. After nearly an hour of Obama peppering the students with questions about getting engaged and making a difference, the students were given an opportunity to ask the former president questions. The first question came from a Roosevelt University student who asked the president about working with immigrants who may be afraid to come out of the shadows given the Trump administration’s rhetoric. “Immigration is a good example of an issue that stirs up so much passion and sometimes misinformation that it’s hard for us to have a healthy conversation about it,” Obama said. “For those who are concerned about undocumented workers coming in…it’s important for them to also appreciate the degree to which these are overwhelmingly families looking for a better life for them and their children.” Before leaving office, President Obama said [immigration was one of the issues](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/30/us/politics/obama-trump-immigration-ban.html?%5Fr=0) that could lead him back to political conversations. Obama also answered questions about recovering from failure and owning your past. The former president is currently working on a book about his political journey, he said Monday. ## Transcript So, what's been going on while I've been gone? [ LAUGH ] On the back end now of my presidency, not that it's completed, I'm spending a lot of time thinking about what is the most important thing I can do for my next job. [ LAUGH ] And what I am convinced of is that, although there are all kinds of issues that I care about, and all kinds of issues that I intend to work on, the single most important thing I can do is To help, in any way I can, prepare the next generation of leadership to take up the baton and to take their own crack at change in the world. Because of changes in the media, we now have a situation in which Everybody's listening to people who already agree with them, and are further and further reinforcing their own realities to the neglect of a common reality that allows us to have a healthy debate, And then try to find common ground and actually move solutions forward. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4752768/barack-obama-speech-university-of-chicago-young-leaders/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4752768/barack-obama-speech-university-of-chicago-young-leaders/"},"headline":"Barack Obama to Young Leaders: It's Time to 'Take Up the Baton'","datePublished":"2017-04-24T17:38:37.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-08T08:47:11.373Z","description":"Barack Obama broke his post-White House silence to talk with students at the University of Chicago","url":"https://time.com/4752768/barack-obama-speech-university-of-chicago-young-leaders/","keywords":["Barack Obama","Obama","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt02b7cfd011b25555/6988ca60656a3fe42ebcfb0b/gettyimages-672311788.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maya Rhodan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt02b7cfd011b25555/6988ca60656a3fe42ebcfb0b/gettyimages-672311788.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Former President Obama Speaks On Civic Engagement At The University Of Chicago","caption":"Former President Obama Speaks On Civic Engagement At The University Of Chicago","creditText":"Scott Olson—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4752768/barack-obama-speech-university-of-chicago-young-leaders/","name":"Barack Obama to Young Leaders: It's Time to 'Take Up the Baton'"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Barack Obama To Young Leaders: It's Time To 'Take Up The Baton\"","description":"Former President Barack Obama said Monday that while there are lots of issues on his radar, the most important thing he believes he can do in his next job is help the next generation of leaders.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/6DZuxHKb/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2017-04-24T17:53:35.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/6DZuxHKb.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4752768/barack-obama-speech-university-of-chicago-young-leaders/","duration":"PT1M29S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4752768/barack-obama-speech-university-of-chicago-young-leaders/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```